Jadeite's Victory
by ecyor0
Summary: Sailor Moon meets her match when an old enemy returns with something more powerful than all her previous foes combined... common sense...


_Hey, what can I say? I only started watching Sailor Moon so I could see what everyone was talking about. Now I've let myself get sucked into the fandom. Beware, people, it's got a lot more pull than you might think. Anyway, this is me pouncing on a juicy plot thread the story writers left hanging, as well as poking some goodhearted fun at the fact that if any of Sailor Moon's enemies had the capability to form a coherent plan, she'd be royally screwed. _

_I use the names from the Japanese version, just in case you're wondering why I call the Negaverse the Dark Kingdom. Also, Jadeite's established personality (does he have one?) didn't get a word in edgeways in this story_

"So, we meet again Sailor Moon." The monster carrying Sailor Moon deposited her on the ground in front of the raised throne-like chair. "Or rather, Tsukino Usagi."

Usagi looked up in shock from the floor. And then toppled backwards in even greater shock.

"It- it's you!"

"Yes, me. Jadeite." Jadeite was sitting on the throne, legs draped casually over the left arm while his shoulder leaned against the right. His brown, knee-length boots made dull clacking noises as he idly tapped his heels against the side of the throne, and his chin rested on his hand, forefinger pressed against his temple. He was the picture of relaxation.

"How is that possible?" Usagi cried out despairingly. "We defeated Queen Beryl and the Dark Kingdom ages ago – _years_ ago!"

"Not all of them" Jadeite countered. "You defeated Queen Beryl, certainly, and you saw Nephrite killed – and I believe it was you that dealt with Malachite as well – hard to know, my intelligence network can't really cover things that only the Sailor Scouts saw. Zoicite, I can tell you, died at Queen Beryl's hand, but I was different. Unlike Zoicite, I didn't disobey Queen Beryl, I only failed her, and so I was sentenced to eternal sleep instead."

"What?" Usagi asked in confusion.

"Imprisonment" Jadeite replied by way of explanation. "Sealed in crystal and plunged into a netherworld of eternal blackness, there to sink down, down, never to return. But return I did – when you destroyed Queen Beryl, the seal was broken, and I was able to free myself. It wasn't quite that easy, of course – I'd sunk down quite a way, and had to spend time finding my way back. Three years, in fact. Three years that you'd been quite busy in."

Jadeite clicked his fingers and a shadowy form appeared from behind the throne, carrying a tray with a goblet of wine. Jadeite took the goblet, holding it by the rim with his fingers.

"Would you like one?" he asked politely, swirling the glass. Taking the stony silence as a refusal, he waved the minion back into the shadows.

"...how did you do it?" Usagi asked eventually. "How did you find the identities of all the Sailor Scouts?"

"Oh, that was easy" Jadeite replied. "I already knew about you, Rei and Ami, I just had some of my minions secretly tail you and wait until you'd given away enough information to work it out – I've known your secret identities for months."

"That's impossible! We never-"

"Saw anything? That's because I gave my minions specific instructions to avoid being seen, and to run instead of picking fights. That and to wait until they had the names of all nine scouts – I figured that at the rate you were collecting new team members, you'd easily have the whole collection three years later. And what a collection." Jadeite gave a soft chuckle of amusement, holding up his hand to tick the scouts off on his fingers. "Let's see, you've got the top junior high school academic in Japan, a Shinto priestess, a girl who's main talents are skating, cooking and fighting, an aspiring idol, a pair of lovebirds..."

"What?"

"Haruka and Michiru. Them, plus the daughter of a mad professor and as for Sailor Pluto... it's fascinating, her secret identity doesn't seem to exist on any official records. Mind you, she _is_ the Sailor Scout in charge of time and space, so she could easily be from any time period, like your daughter Chibiusa. Oh, you're surprised I know about her?" Jadeite observed as Usagi spluttered incoherently. "Spare a thought for me, I was surprised when I found out you had a daughter. Even if she is from... Crystal Tokyo, I believe? We were always a little curious about that, my spies only ever heard references to that place. Some city in the future where you're Queen of the Earth or something. Oh, if Beryl had a grave, she'd be spinning in it.

'By the way, when you meet up with Tuxedo Mask next, send him my congratulations on his... unique choice of soulmate. And I have to say, he's quite the gentleman – honestly girl, you're still under 18, the fact that he doesn't mind being seen in public with you hanging on his arm says a lot about his strength of character. Not to mention his self-control..."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Usagi demanded, cheeks beginning to go slightly pink. Jadeite sat up, bringing his hands in front of him to emphasize his words.

"Picture this; you're on a date with your girlfriend, you take her out to a fine restaurant, order a meal, have a nice, romantic dinner by candlelight, then when you head home, she comes in, and next thing you know, she's breaking into the wine, she goes from slightly flushed in the cheeks to all-out tipsy, and then she's making all kinds of suggestions about how to finish the night..." Jadeite gave an amused laugh as Usagi turned beetroot red. "As I said, he's quite the gentleman. After that episode, I gave my minions instructions to give you two a bit of privacy if things ever went further – I may be an unprincipled, villainous knave, but I have _some_ decency." Jadeite sipped the wine, hand cupped under the goblet. For a while, neither of them spoke. Usagi stayed where she was, half-kneeling on the floor, trying to sum up the courage to make a move.

"I wouldn't advise it" Jadeite said casually as Usagi tensed, ready to try an attack. "I'm no match against you."

This threw Usagi off-balance. "Huh?" she asked blankly.

"I'm no match against you." Jadeite replied. "You know that, I know that, so naturally, I've taken the underhanded route to enure my safety" Jadeite reached down next to the throne and picked up a thin staff, four feet long with a light blue orb set at the top, in a sharp, geometric plinth. "Beryl's old staff – well, the important part anyway. The rod part didn't really fit my style, so I set the orb on a new one of my own design. Gives it a slight boost in power, though not nearly enough to be on par with any of the Sailor Scouts – even Sailor Mercury would be more than a match for me now. But as I said, I didn't win by playing fair."

Jadeite pointed the orb of the staff at the ground between him and Usagi, causing a swirling plane of mist to appear, which immediately coalesced into a view of Sailor Mars lying unconscious on the floor of what looked like a basement.

"Rei!" Usagi cried out. "Leave her alone, don't hurt her!"

"I haven't hurt her" Jadeite replied from behind the misty vision. "She's being kept sedated. That room has a well-balanced mix of air and sleeping gas in it – even if the vents turned off now, she wouldn't wake up for another hour, at least. And as an added bonus, the excess gas will have permeated the entire basement of that building, so anyone who might accidentally discover her will pass out before they reach the bottom of the stairs. Not that she isn't guarded." Jadeite waved the staff, and the vision panned across the room, revealing a trio of monsters sitting on a pile of boxes in the corner – a tall, frog-like lady, a wispy, cloud-like creature, and something that looked like a cross between a heavy metal drummer and a World War One gas mask. "How are you holding up there?" Jadeite asked. The monsters looked up at the sound of his voice and waved an acknowledgment. "I'd have more than three guarding her, but there's another eight scouts to guard, plus two cats and Tuxedo Mask." Jadeite waved the staff again, causing the mist screen to flash between visions of all the Sailor Scouts, all unconscious in rooms similar to the one Rei was in.

"They're all under guard, all of them in secret locations scattered throughout Tokyo, and a few outside the city, for good measure. Each one separated from the others by well over a mile. And each one in a room filled with sleeping gas which, at a single command from me, will be flooded with a lethal nerve toxin and I _mean_ lethal: two seconds exposure is all it takes." The mist swirled apart, disappearing as Jadeite put the staff down again. "I decided early on we'd have to catch you all unawares. Because regardless of how powerful you are as Sailor Scouts, underneath you're all quite normal, frail humans. Chloroform works just as well no matter how many enemies you've defeated. The trap's actually been set up for a while now – we've just been waiting for all of you to be in secluded spots, separated from each other, where people couldn't see you. That took a lot of patience – and quite frankly, if I hadn't spent the better part of six months going through all the ex-denizens of the Dark Kingdom, selecting the most level-headed ones, that had no ambitions beyond doing their job and getting the perks, and then training them all up to be patient, and to work together as a team, and to not jump out and announce themselves before attacking – that last one took a lot of work – if I hadn't done all that, someone might very well have jumped the gun and given the whole scheme away."

Usagi sat on her heels, staring dejectedly at the floor, eyes beginning to brim with water. She clenched her hands over her knees, squeezing the tears away.

"Why are you doing this?" she pleaded desperately. "Why can't you see that it doesn't have to be this way?"

"Oh, I can see that" Jadeite replied affably. "I could easily put this life behind me, let you run me through the wringer with that Dr Davidson's Cure-All you have for a scepter, and lead a nice, peaceful, happy life as a normal human being – but I don't want to. I spent far too long serving under Beryl, and now that she and the other Generals are gone, I'm on top of the pile. And sue me, but I'm going to sit back and _enjoy_ being in charge. If I get bored of power, then maybe I'll hit you up about it, but until then, I'm fine the way I am, thank-you very much."

Jadeite stood up, stepping regally down from the throne and pacing over to Usagi. "And so, here we are." he said, in a voice liquid with contentment. "I have my old foe Sailor Moon kneeling before me. I have all her friends' lives in one hand, while I hold my erstwhile Queen's forces in the other. There is no possible way that you can get yourself out of this – even if you were to draw on some as-yet-unknown reservoir of power – and quite frankly you've done that so many times I doubt there's any more left to draw on – my monsters are all under orders to do away with their charges the moment anything happens to their leader, so you dare not oppose me. In other words, I have won. My revenge is taken; my victory is complete."

Jadeite knelt down on one knee, lightly taking Usagi's chin in his hand and lifting her gaze up to his. "Game, set and match, my dear." Usagi looked up at Jadeite helplessly, tears beginning to trickle down her cheeks. Jadeite removed his hand, stood, and paced back to the throne. Sitting down, he resumed his initial position, legs draped over one arm while he rested his chin on his hand. He looked at Usagi for a while, an amicable smile on his face. Finally, he picked up the staff and pointed it at the air in front of him. "We're done" he called out as the orb glowed. "You're all free to leave and make your way back – turn off the sleeping gas as well."

For a while, Usagi missed the significance of what Jadeite had just said. Jadeite waited, and gave a soft chuckle as realization dawned on Usagi's face. "Yes, the sleeping gas keeping the Sailor Scouts unconscious. They'll be awake in an hour or so."

Usagi was speechless. "Wh- why?" she asked once she found her tongue again. "Why are you letting them go?"

"Didn't you hear me?" Jadeite replied. "I've taken my revenge. I defeated you, and left you helpless in front of me, powerless to stop whatever I had in store for you, just like you defeated me and left me powerless in front of Queen Beryl. I held your fate, and the fate of your friends in my hand – I could have chosen to do whatever I wanted with them. The fact that I chose to let them live is neither here nor there. Indeed, I'd much prefer to leave them alive – you see I have a proposition for you, Sailor Moon."

"A proposition?" Usagi echoed.

"Yes, a proposition. You see, the first thing I did once I freed myself was to find out what had happened in my absence. I found that you'd been quite busy, Sailor Moon. I found that you had saved the world no less than seven times, culminating with your defeat of perhaps the most powerful being in the galaxy – Lady Galaxia. And if your future self in Crystal Tokyo is to be believed, you're going to do it again, 1000 years from now. And all of this made me realize two important things. First, the Dark Kingdom was just one small player in a universe of enemies that Earth has faced and endured. And secondly... we need you."

Usagi stared at Jadeite in disbelief. "What?"

"We need you, Sailor Moon – the world needs you. You may stand between me and total control of this world, but you also stand between me and any number of enemies that could wipe me out with a flick of their hand. And so, I'm offering a truce."

"A _what?_"

"How about it? You let me run my little Dark Kingdom over here, out of everyone's way. I've already got my minions infiltrating the major international companies – this time next year I'll have more money and influence than anyone on the face of the planet. I'll be the closest to owning this world that I can get without trying to outright conquer it. My minions won't cause too much trouble – they're the ones with more controllable appetites for energy, so I won't need to steal anywhere near as much to keep them happy, and I've got the energy stealing operation spread out a lot further – still all in Japan, but spread out along the islands, and besides, so long as no-one dies, they'll put the mysterious fainting and drowsiness down to stress and overwork – only to be expected in a society like this." Jadeite finished the last mouthful of wine and put the glass down on the arm of the throne. "So, you let me continue with my little operation here, and I'll leave you and the Sailor Scouts be. Not only that, but if you find yourself facing another enemy from beyond the Solar System, and you find yourself outgunned, drop me a line and I'll lend assistance."

"You'll _what?_"

"You Sailor Scouts make a good team, but you're forever getting into situations where you need help from someone – Sailor Starlights, Dreamland Pegasi, whatever. My minions aren't as strong as your team, but they're better trained, and there's more of them – they'll be more than capable of getting you and your friends out of harm's way. And all other things aside, the information network I have set up is quite good – perfect for when you need to find out information about an organization quickly."

"I don't understand, why are you-?"

"Why am I doing this? I told you. I've got my payback for you defeating me. And now that I have, I'm not going to be foolish enough to remove the best line of defence this world has. And which would you rather, Usagi? Fight your way through another slew of enemies and destroy me? Or reach an understanding and an arrangement that benefits both sides?"

"But..." Usagi was at a loss for words. "It isn't... the way you're doing things is just..."

"Usagi" Jadeite interrupted. "Your naïve idealism works surprisingly well when saving the world from certain doom. It may be the best way. But it's not _my_ way. I am not a hero, Usagi, and I'm not going to try to be one – I'll leave that to the ones who've had practice. And really, what reason do you have to stop me? As I said, I'm not trying to take over the whole world, just as much of it as I can take without people noticing, and I'm not intending to terrorize innocent citizens – if I'm successful, my victims won't ever know they were targeted. There are restaurants out there that kill more people than I will. Especially if they keep serving that puffer-fish meal – what possesses people to eat meat that could very well poison them to death? But I digress." Jadeite clicked his fingers again, and from somewhere above, there was a hiss of pressurized air, and a cloud of sleeping gas poured down on Usagi.

"When you wake up" Jadeite said as Usagi felt her arms get heavy and her eyelids droop. "You will be returned home. You will have a device placed on your bedside table with which you can contact me. You will then have the choice to accept my truce, or seek me out and defeat me. But think first – which choice will benefit the world more?" Jadeite closed his eyes and sat back on the throne, waiting for the sleeping gas to do its work. Once it had, Jadeite beckoned for one of his minions to pick Sailor Moon up and carry her out.

"Pity Haruka's already got Michiru in her life" he said aloud to no-one in particular. "She seemed like my kind of girl."


End file.
